Publications by authors named "John H Powers"

Background: The development of new infectious disease therapies has become a public health priority given the suboptimal efficacy and adverse effects with current drugs for some patients. Understanding the factors associated with physician antibiotic prescribing preferences can help guide policymakers seeking to incentivize the development of interventions that improve patient outcomes for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.

Objectives: To determine the factors associated with physician decision-making when prescribing antibiotics for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI), and cellulitis.

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Objectives: Influenza-like illness (ILI) caused by respiratory viruses results in various respiratory clinical manifestations. The ILI002 prospective observational cohort study aimed to describe viral agents, seasonality, and outcomes of patients with ILI during four seasons in the influenza H1N1-pandemic and post-pandemic years (2010-2014).

Methods: Patients from six Mexican hospitals were enrolled from April 2010 to March 2014.

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Article Synopsis
  • Randomised controlled trials often use surrogate endpoints instead of direct outcomes to enhance efficiency and reduce costs, but this can lead to increased uncertainty regarding treatment effects and intervention harms.
  • A new guideline, known as CONSORT-Surrogate, provides a checklist for reporting trials that utilize surrogate endpoints, ensuring better clarity and transparency in the results.
  • The recommended checklist, tailored for all stakeholders involved in clinical trials, aims to improve the reporting quality of these studies and ultimately reduce wasted research efforts.
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Article Synopsis
  • Randomised controlled trials often use surrogate endpoints instead of direct outcomes to save time, cost, and ethical concerns, but this can create uncertainty about the actual treatment effects and potential harms.
  • The SPIRIT-Surrogate is a new guideline to enhance the reporting standards for trial protocols that use surrogate endpoints, building on the existing SPIRIT checklist.
  • This guideline includes nine modified items, encouraging all stakeholders to adopt it, which aims to improve trial design, transparency, and ultimately reduce wasted research efforts.
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Introduction: We sought to determine pre-infection correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 post-vaccine inzfections (PVI) acquired during the first Omicron wave in the United States.

Methods: Serum and saliva samples from 176 vaccinated adults were collected from October to December of 2021, immediately before the Omicron wave, and assessed for SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specific IgG and IgA binding antibodies (bAb). Sera were also assessed for bAb using commercial assays, and for neutralization activity against several SARS-CoV-2 variants.

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Article Synopsis
  • RSV is a highly infectious virus that causes respiratory infections, with significant effects on older adults, and a candidate vaccine (RSVPreF3 OA) showed promising efficacy rates of 71.7% for ARIs and 82.6% for LRTD in adults 60 and older.
  • In a phase 3 trial, participants aged 60 and above either received the RSVPreF3 OA vaccine or a placebo, with patient-reported outcomes evaluated through various health questionnaires.
  • Results indicated that those vaccinated had significantly fewer RSV-ARI episodes and experienced milder symptoms compared to the placebo group, suggesting the vaccine can both prevent infections and lessen symptom severity.
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Background: Human Bocaviruses (HBoV) can cause acute respiratory tract infections. High coinfection rates cloud its pathogenicity. This study sought to describe the clinical features of HBoV1 disease in children and adults with Influenza-like illness (ILI), exploring associations between viral load, clinical features, and seasonality.

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Article Synopsis
  • The paper discusses the increasing use of surrogate endpoints in interventional trials and introduces a framework for better defining and reporting them.
  • A series of studies, including reviews and surveys involving various stakeholders, revealed inconsistencies in how surrogate endpoints are currently defined and understood.
  • It was found that while traditional surrogate endpoints focus on biomarkers, broader interpretations including intermediate outcomes like function or symptoms also require clearer consensus among stakeholders, particularly between patients and health technology experts.
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Background: The COMET-ICE trial demonstrated that sotrovimab clinically and statistically significantly reduces the risk of all-cause > 24-h hospitalization or death due to any cause among patients with COVID-19 at high risk of disease progression. Patient-reported outcomes are important to capture symptom burden of COVID-19 and assess treatment effectiveness. This study investigated symptoms and their impact over the acute phase of COVID-19 infection among patients on sotrovimab versus placebo.

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Since 1980, the US Congress has passed legislation providing several incentives to encourage the development and regulatory approval of new drugs, particularly antibiotics. We assessed long-term trends and characteristics of approvals and discontinuations of all new molecular entities, new therapeutic biologics, and gene and cell therapies approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as reasons for discontinuations by therapeutic class, in the context of laws and regulations implemented over the past four decades. In the period 1980-2021, the FDA approved 1310 new drugs, of which 210 (16.

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Objective: To review the clinical evidence, regulatory background, and cost of antibiotics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 2016-19.

Design: Cohort study of FDA approved drugs.

Data Sources: FDA databases, ClinicalTrials.

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Background/objective: InFLUenza Patient-reported Outcome (FLU-PRO Plus) is a 34-item patient-reported outcome instrument designed to capture the intensity and frequency of viral respiratory symptoms. This study evaluates whether FLU-PRO Plus responses could discriminate between symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and influenza-like illness (ILI) with no COVID diagnosis, as well as forecast disease progression.

Methods: FLU-PRO Plus was administered daily for 14 days.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors associated with severe influenza-like illness (ILI) in Mexican adults that could be useful to clinicians when assessing patients with ILI.

Methods: Data from adult patients enrolled from 2010 through 2014 in ILI002 - a prospective hospital-based observational cohort study - were analyzed. Etiology and clinical characteristics were compared between cases of severe ILI (defined as hospitalization and/or death) and cases of non-severe ILI.

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Background: Accurate COVID-19 prognosis is a critical aspect of acute and long-term clinical management. We identified discrete clusters of early stage-symptoms which may delineate groups with distinct disease severity phenotypes, including risk of developing long-term symptoms and associated inflammatory profiles.

Methods: 1,273 SARS-CoV-2 positive U.

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Purpose: A well-defined and reliable patient-reported outcome instrument for COVID-19 is important for assessing symptom severity and supporting research studies. The InFLUenza Patient-Reported Outcome (FLU-PRO) instrument has been expanded to include loss of taste and smell in the FLU-PRO Plus, to comprehensively cover COVID-19 symptoms. Our studies were designed to evaluate and validate the FLU-PRO Plus among patients with COVID-19.

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Background: Patient reported outcome measures (PROM) can improve patient care and be crucial for symptom tracking especially during disease outbreaks. FLU-PRO Plus is a validated PROM used to track viral respiratory symptoms. Our study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of using FLU-PRO© Plus, to track symptoms across three healthcare systems.

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Background: Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) are a common cause of influenza-like illness, with the ability to infect the upper and lower respiratory tracts. In this study we aim to describe the clinical and molecular features of HRV infection in Mexican children and adults.

Methods: We performed a hospital-based, 4-year multicenter prospective observational cohort study of patients with influenza-like illness.

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Background: Patient-reported outcomes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection are an important measure of the full burden of coronavirus disease (COVID). Here, we examine how (1) infecting genotype and COVID-19 vaccination correlate with inFLUenza Patient-Reported Outcome (FLU-PRO) Plus score, including by symptom domains, and (2) FLU-PRO Plus scores predict return to usual activities and health.

Methods: The idemiology, mmunology, and linical haracteristics of pandemic infectious diseases (EPICC) study was implemented to describe the short- and long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a longitudinal, observational cohort.

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Background: The frequency of asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is unclear and may be influenced by how symptoms are evaluated. In this study, we sought to determine the frequency of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in a prospective cohort of health care workers (HCWs).

Methods: A prospective cohort of HCWs, confirmed negative for SARS-CoV-2 exposure upon enrollment, were evaluated for SARS-CoV-2 infection by monthly analysis of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies as well as referral for polymerase chain reaction testing whenever they exhibited symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

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